The reality of illusion

Like the light
Of a dead star
Nature had died
Long before
It met the eye.

Planting Garlic

October is the time to plant Garlic before the frost kicks in. The plot was overgrown with weeds and it took some sweat to rinse it out. The job wasnt that tough though because we used the tool called "Herk" in Swedish and is used to dig out potatos but is great for biting out big chunks of soil bringing to the surface all the weed roots. Love the tool! We planted organic garlic. Lets see how many will germinate next year.

Chopping the Lamb

It was time to chop the Lamb into pieces after it hang for a week. It is a normal practice to hang the meat for a few days to soften the muscles. Rolf is a good teacher i find;

Bocking 14 Russian Comfrey - Symphytum × uplandicum

This plant is a much better fertiliser than cow-dung and bees love it too

Fertilizer uses
Comfrey is a particularly valuable source of fertility to the organic gardener. It is very deep rooted and acts as a dynamic accumulator, mining a host of nutrients from the soil. These are then made available through its fast-growing leaves (up to 4-5 pounds per plant per cut) which, lacking fibre, quickly break down to a thick black liquid. There is also no risk of nitrogen robbery when comfrey is dug into the soil as the C:N ratio of the leaves is lower than that of well-rotted compost. Comfrey is an excellent source of potassium, an essential plant nutrient needed for flower, seed and fruit production. Its leaves contain 2-3 times more potassium than farmyard manure, mined from deep in the subsoil, tapping into reserves that would not normally be available to plants.[citation needed]
There are various ways in which comfrey can be used as a fertilier. These include:[citation needed]
Comfrey as a compost activator - include comfrey in the compost heap to add nitrogen and help to heat the heap. Comfrey should not be added in quantity as it will quickly break down into a dark sludgy liquid that needs to be balanced with more fibrous, carbon-rich material.
Comfrey liquid fertilizer - can be produced by either rotting leaves down in rainwater for 4–5 weeks to produce a ready-to-use 'comfrey tea', or by stacking dry leaves under a weight in a container with a hole in the base. When the leaves decompose a thick black comfrey concentrate is collected. This must be diluted at 15:1 before use.
Comfrey as a mulch or side dressing - a two-inch layer of comfrey leaves placed around a crop will slowly break down and release plant nutrients; it is especially useful for crops that need extra potassium, such as fruit bearers but also reported to do well for potatoes. Comfrey can be slightly wilted before application optionally but either way, avoid using flowering stems as these can root.
Comfrey potting mixture - originally devised to utilize peat, now environmental awareness has led to a leaf mold-based alternative being adopted instead; two year old, well decayed leaf mold should be used, this will absorb the nutrient-rich liquid released by the decaying comfrey. In a black plastic sack alternate 3-4 inch layers of leaf mold and chopped comfrey leaves. Add a little dolomitic limestone to slightly raise pH. Leave for between 2–5 months depending on the season, checking that it does not dry out or become too wet. The mixture is ready when the comfrey leaves have rotted and are no longer visible. Use as a general potting compost, although it is too strong for seedlings.
- from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

Siberian peashrub - Caragana arborescens

Great plant for fixing nitrogen in the garden and for honeybees

Uses;
Windbreaks - The caragana is recommended for planting in the outer rows of multi-row plantings. It can be used to neutralize soil to prepare for further planting. A legume, the caragana fixes nitrogen. It is suitable for planting in single-row field windbreaks where a dense, short barrier is desired.

Wildlife habitat - The caragana is used for nesting by several songbirds. The seeds are occasionally eaten by a few songbirds. The plant is not a preferred food for browsing animals, but its fragrant flowers attract many pollen-consuming animals.

Erosion control - The caragans has an extensive root system that can be used to assist with erosion control.

Ornamental - The caragana, with its small fragrant flowers and attractive compound leaflets, is used alongside lilacs to create a 'compare and contrast' appearance.

Bee plants - The caragana has a fragrant flower that naturally will attract bees. The honey created has a pleasant taste, slightly 'fruity'.

Cultivated food source - The caragana has a slightly bitter tasting 'pea', usually 3-4 to a pod, that is edible. They should be cooked before eaten. There have been no verified cases of poisoning from consuming the caragana pea. Additionally, the yellow flowers which have a taste like peas, can be used in salads to add colour and some flavour.
- from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

Silence of the Lambs (Graphic Images)

Warning!!!!!

GRAPHIC IMAGES!!!!



We went to our teacher Rolf to learn how to slaughter lambs. He sure knows his stuff since everything went so smooth. After todays experience I feel sure enough to do this on my own. Some photos might seem graphic so if you are sensitive to this stuff Do Not Browse This Post !!!




Graphic Images !!!
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Elisabeth and Rolf choosing which 2 are to be slaughteterd ...

Once chosen 2 bullets are placed into their heads very fast, then he cuts thier arteries on their throats so the blood can run out ...

blowing air under lambs skin for easy skin removal, it look like a baloon ...

time to skin the lamb ... students watching ... some not feeling good about all this bloody mess ...

taking out the inside ...

then it was our turn to try it ...

the lamb will hang for a week so the musscles can soften. It will hang 50 day-grades (Celsius) So if the outdoor temp is 10'C it will hang for 5 days. If the temp is 5'C it will hang for 10 days.

We will be cutting these lamb into pieces next Thursady and will also slaughter a few chicks.

Bee devastation: Campaign for total ban of neonicotinoid pesticides

A third of UK bee colonies have been lost over the last two years and there have been many explanations given for this. There is strong evidence that neonicotinoids – a class of pesticide first used in agriculture in the mid 1990s at exactly the time when mass bee disappearances started occurring – are involved in the deaths. The evidence against these chemicals is strong enough that they have been banned or suspended in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia – but not yet in the UK.
Neonicotinoids work as an insecticide by blocking specific neural pathways in insects’ central nervous systems. The chemicals impair bees’ communication, homing and foraging ability, flight activity, ability to discriminate by smell, learning, and immune systems – all of which have an impact on bees’ ability to survive.

It seems bees genetic make up makes them particularly vulnerable to neonicotinoids. Recent mapping of the bee genome has revealed that bees’ capacity to detoxify chemicals is much lower than other insects. Instead bees have two strategies to protect themselves. On the first day of foraging in a new area, scout bees are sent out first to taste the nectar and pollens – if any are adversely affected they will be expelled from the hive immediately, and the colony will avoid the area.

In addition, once foraging begins, nurse bees in the hive clean foragers each time they return. These strategies protect the colony from mass exposure to lethal doses of chemicals, but they do leave honey bees particularly susceptible to sub-lethal exposures to any contaminants they encounter.

The other really important factor is the complex behaviour of honeybee colonies. For example, the 10,000 forager bees in a typical hive need to co-ordinate their quest for nectar – and they do this through the famed ‘waggle dance’, which communicates the flight direction and distance to sources of nectar. The complexity and precision of these dances is breathtaking, and success relies on the integrity of a nervous system where each synapse is crucial. It is no surprise then that honey bees have been shown to have a higher number of neurological receptors than other insects.

Honey bees live and work as a colony, not as individuals; what seems to be happening is that the cumulative impact of small doses of nenoicotinoids on thousands of bees over time is affecting individual bee’s ability to work and communicate effectively as part of a colony. Because lots of bees in each colony are behaving sub-optimally this can lead to the sudden, and devastating, outcomes that we’ve been witnessing in recent years.

The Soil Association believes that there is already enough evidence to justify an immediate ban on neonicotinoids today.
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/2821.html

Source http://beelore.com

Winterising Top Bar Hives

The temp is down to 6-9'C day. At night even colder but not under 0'C ... yet.
I placed rockwool under the roof, raw wool in the empty window space and I screwed a few 25mm tick planks on the Northern side of the hive only, which makes a 50mm tick wall.

Good bye Lamas Im off to Värmland

A farm near by my summer house keeps 3 cute Lamas :) They came close to say good bye to Bailey and me (at least I like to think so).

Kvasir's Mead of Poetry

Poetry, as the shaping of language through memory, imagination, and speech, was regarded as a mystery, a secret craft not unlike magic. Such power required considerable training, which came at a price. Curiously, at every stage in the myths, poetry is considered so powerful that no single individual can be said to contain or own it. The tales of how Odin claimed power over poets are full of duplicity, theft, and lying, but poetry itself escapes any attempt to utterly control it. It seems entirely appropriate that a common kenning for poetry was mead – for example, “Kvasir’s mead” or “the dwarfs’ mead”. In this tradition, one can be said to literally become drunk with poetry.

~ Kvasir was one of the wisest of the gods, and traveled the world teaching everyone he met. Two dwarves, named Fjalar and Galar, thought to profit by Kvasir’s death; they killed him and reduced his remains in a pot called Odrerir, where they mixed Kvasir’s blood with honey to create a powerful mead. Anyone who drank this mead would gain access to Kvasir’s wisdom: the mead, itself, was poetry.

~ Suttung the giant had a different axe to grind with this murderous pair of dwarves; they had killed his mother. Upon capturing them, he demanded the mead of poetry as a ransom for their lives. Hoping to keep its power to himself, he kept the mead in a deep cave, guarded by his daughter, Gunnlod. Everyone coveted the mead – particularly Odin, who was known to steal that which caught his eye.

~ Through a series of disguises and schemes, Odin managed to break into the cave and seduce the giant’s daughter. For three nights, he drank the mead; on the third night, he changed into an eagle in order to escape. Suttung discovered the theft, and changed into an eagle as well to give chase. Some of the mead escaped Odin’s mouth as he flew; some he allowed to drop, in order to distract the giant close behind him. When he finally made it over the walls of Asgard, he spat out the bulk of the mead into vessels the gods had prepared, making his plan complete.

But as the story ends, the gods themselves cannot claim all of the precious mead for themselves. Both deliberately and by accident, some of the mead fell on the earth, where it touched some of the living; those whom the spilled mead have touched become poets. While a somewhat visceral and queasy metaphor for divine inspiration, it is an important point that in this metaphor,

- poetry is regurgitated and re-consumed. It travels through many stages and transformations (like mead); it does not belong to any one individual.
- It is likewise an important point that poetry – the distillation of the mind of the wisest of gods, and providing access to that knowledge – is constantly shadowed by deception and distortion.
- Finally, the poets themselves are the media (the vessels, the transformers) of poetry. In Norse tradition, poets are powerful, but one should never entirely trust them – no more than one should ever entirely trust Odin.
And for the poets themselves – and their audience – the myth suggests that while it is best shared liberally, one must try never to take in too much poetry at once.